ASPCA Day 2009: NYC

I was completely overcome with canine- and feline-envy at ASPCA's annual celebration in New York City. A curse, a curse to my cat allergies, and a bigger curse to my apartment building's owner, which discriminates against dogs. Even though the clouds hovered, the rain held off for our four-legged friends and their two-legged guardians, and we partied the evening away.

A band entertained the crowd at Union Square.

Free cotton candy! There was popcorn too.

The cat-mobile had feline friends up for adoption.

Dreaming of a forever home with a big picture window, a fleece blanket for long naps, and a big bowl of cat food.

Do you know that saying about people resembling their dogs? Well...

um, and...I kid, I kid. Cute!

All the NYC-hipsters were donning the "it" color of the night, orange, the official color of the ASPCA.

These ASPCA Day-goers enjoyed some time in the doggie run.

Support the ASPCA. Become a member, and if you donate $25 or more, you will receive the quarterly ASPCA Action.

Give a gift membership of $25 or more and your recipient will get a membership card, an ASPCA calendar, an ASPCA Action subscription, and an ASPCA wristband.

Tying the knot? Donate to the ASPCA in lieu of wedding favors, and you'll get place cards for your tables. Learn more.

In New York City, search their adoptable dogs and adoptable cats. Guess who's hiring? The ASPCA is.

Break Out Your Datebook...

Aside from the official celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, which we all know is really every day, there will be animal and eco-events galore next month. Mark your calendars for one, a few, or all of these groovy events!

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month and what better way to celebrate than by rocking out at Union Square in New York City with the ASPCA and the 4-legged set on Tuesday, April 7th. Between 4-8 pm, enjoy refreshments, live music, and socialize with doggies up for adoption. Don't forget to get decked out in orange - the official color of the ASPCA - even the Empire State Building will be doing it! Impress your coworkers with this free ASPCA wallpaper. But what to pick...the cat, dog or horse?

Be thrifty, green and an animal activist all in one by signing up for a library card and celebrating National Library Week (April 12-18th). Of course I own some things, but communal sharing is the way to go. Netflix? No thank you. I get new DVD releases for $1 and older releases for free at my library; get my reading fix on ("I cannot live without books," Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in 1815); peruse magazines, vegan cookbooks and sample music. The library can also be a great resource to advocate for animals. Learn how using the Farm Sanctuary library outreach page.

Celebrate the Cherry Blossom festival at Branch Book Park in Newark, NJ. Or, just pamper yourself with some Cherry Blossom beauty products from The Body Shop. Or just eat soy cherry chip ice cream from Trader Joe's. It's delicious!

April 24 is Arbor Day, a national observance that encourages tree planting and care. Become a member of the Arbor Day Foundation for as little as $10, and they will plant 10 trees in our national forests.

Don't forget the Hackensack Riverkeeper clean-ups, the first of which is on Sunday, April 26, in Overpeck Park, Leonia, NJ. But you don't have to wait for an official clean-up. Trash is everywhere.

April 9th is the first day of Passover. PETA's VegCooking offers recipes including Carrot Tzimmes, Chopped 'Liver' Spread and Sweet Potato Kugel. For more, click here. For Easter, April 12th, doesn't a Mustard and Apricot Glazed 'Ham', Creamy Mashed Potatoes With Chives, and Apple Walnut Cake sound tempting? Click here. Not a cook? Try the vegan vegetable ravioli salad ($8.99/lb) off of Whole Foods Market's Easter catering menu or how about the vegetarian chopped "liver" ($6.99/lb.) on the Passover menu. Don't forget the campy chocolate in the form of an Easter Bunny. Check out Rose City Chocolatier.

Forgot Hallmark, Support Animal Groups this Valentine's Day

Is it almost Valentine's Day? Here are a few gift ideas for the animal lover in your life, or even for yourself, because you are a sweetheart to all the animals, aren't you?

ASPCA's Logo Pawprint Heart Sterling Pendant, $28

PETA's 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' T-Shirt, $20.


So I revert to being a five-year old during certain holidays...Valentine's Day being no exception. The past two years, I handed out those cute little Valentine's cards (Winnie the Pooh and Ratatouille ones, if you must know the embarrassing details) and chocolates to my co-workers, and it was a huge hit. This year, I may treat them to these vegan sweets from Endangered Species Chocolate:

Endangered Species Dark Chocolate Love Treats (24-pieces), $6.72, or a set of three bags for $18.50


Farm Sanctuary's 25-piece vegan chocolate box comes adorned with a mini-button, which will last longer than the chocolates will. $35. Visit their online shop.


Flowers last a few days, but a Farm Sanctuary rabbit sponsorship gives all year! You can sponsor a rabbit or chicken for just $10 a month. Call me a crazy fool, but I think this is the most romantic gift yet.


Then, plan a visit to their Watkins Glen shelter in the late spring to visit your friend in person. Stay at one of their three rustic cabins (open starting May 1), enjoy a vegan continental breakfast, and stroll their peaceful and breath-taking grounds. Plenty of opportunities to hike and go wine touring too.

The fine-feathered good life...

The way it should be...

Flashback to my visit, including Watkins Glen dining.

The Ginger Cat Bed & Breakfast, which looks like an adorable Plan B if the Farm Sanctuary cabins are booked, offers a list of vegan-friendly wineries in the Finger Lakes region.

Happy New Year!

Greetings for 2009! I rang in the New Year with family and a Chinese feast of vegetable soup, spring rolls, steamed veggie dumplings, and bean curd. There were two family birthdays to celebrate, so I picked up two adorable vegan tea cakes (one carrot, one chocolate) from Planetary Pastry, available at my local Chelsea Whole Foods Market.

Among other items, I treated the birthday recipients to Sigg water bottles. Breaking the bottled water habit is a great resolution for 2009. More than 1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually to make bottles for Americans' water, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to Carbon Conscious Consumer. Even scarier, they say 86% of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. are not recycled. Never mind all the fuel that is wasted transporting them, and our hard-earned money.

Want to spread your animal rights coolness while saving the Earth? PETA makes this aluminum bunny bottle, $16.


A reusable coffee mug shows you care about the planet and animals. Think about all of those paper cups and plastic lids in the landfills. ASPCA makes this cheerful travel mug, $13.50, also available in grey.


A mug Bob Barker would be proud of. $9.

Just say "yes!" to reusable grocery totes too. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals die each year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food, Carbon Conscious Consumer reports. Whole Foods Market offers a 5-10 cent discount per reusable bag, and my Trader Joe's lets you enter into a raffle to win a $25 gift card when you BYO-bag it.

ASPCA's Will Fight for Animals tote, $10.


Visit Farm Sanctuary's shop for totes, cups, and more.

Being an animal rights advocate and an environmental advocate go hand-in-hand for me. We are destroying our climate each day, often out of laziness, apathy, greed, and worse, a sense of entitlement. Any action we take to lessen our impact on the environment benefits all animals.

Another Loss for Shelter Dogs

The first word (and second, and third) upon hearing that Vice President-elect Joseph Biden bought a 3-month-old male German shepherd from a Chester County, Pennsylvania breeder..."Why?!?" He had a nationwide platform to make a more compassionate, humane choice, yet he chose the vanity of his breed over common sense. I have just never understood people's obsession with having to buy a puppy. One more dog has to wait for his or her forever home, facing likely death, due to this reckless decision. Read PETA's take.

Shelter dogs lose out any time people patronize breeders or pet stores, typically supplied by grizzly puppy mills. Check out PETA's undercover puppy mill investigation, narrated by Charlize Theron.



PETA offers some ways to help.

"Shelter Dogs" is a soul-churning photography book featuring 50 beloved souls captured by Traer Scott. Some found their forever homes, and some went on, hopefully, to a better world than the one they knew here on earth. This book is available through the ASPCA website.